The Most Iconic PlayStation Characters

Summary

• PlayStation’s dominance is due to iconic characters like Jak and Daxter, representing the brand’s rich history.
• Nathan Drake from Uncharted embodies the adventurous spirit while paving the way for high-quality storytelling.
• Kratos from God of War evolves with the brand, representing the growth and maturation of storytelling in video games.

Back in the early 90s, Nintendo was dominant, the Xbox didn’t exist yet, and the humble PlayStation didn’t seem long for the world competing against the same company that killed off the SEGA systems. It would be impossible to imagine today, where the Sony PlayStation is such a powerful force in console gaming, and there’s no future in sight where that will change.

One reason this prominent position exists is a legacy of great iconic characters that have become beloved by PlayStation fans. Whether they’re recently reinvented legacy characters or goofy but lovable cartoon tricksters, the Sony roster has a rich history of great iconic characters.

8

Jak and Daxter – Jak and Daxter Franchise

The Gruesome Twosome

• First appeared in Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy in 2001.
• Most recently appeared in the Jak and Daxter Bundle in 2017.
• Sony’s entry into the odd-couple dynamics of video game heroes like Banjo and Kazooie.

Being a Jak and Daxter fan is a rough gig. Although the franchise was relatively well-loved in the early 2000s with plenty of new entries coming thick and fast, these days, it’s unlikely that another entry will ever arrive as Naughty Dog has moved on to more prestige big-budget projects and Jak and Daxter slip ever more from public consciousness.

Still, among hardcore PlayStation fans, these guys embody the scrappy and optimistic spirit of the early PlayStation years when they were actively fighting with the dominant Nintendo consoles for market share, and many fans eagerly await the possibility of a revival. Jak and Daxter are known for their dark humor, the unique cyberpunk/science-fantasy world they lived in, and a clear indicator of the great work that Naughty Dog would go on to do in the years to come.

7

Joel Miller – The Last of Us

Hard To Be A Good Man

• First appeared in The Last of Us in 2013.
• Most recently appeared in The Last of Us: Part Two in 2020 and the HBO TV show in 2023.
• The embodiment of the Daddification of video games from this period.

By the late 2010s, PlayStation was becoming better, despite the rough years of the PS3, and the PS4 generation would cement their dominance in the console space. However, The Last of Us, the swansong project for the PS3 as a brave new world opened up, remains one of the best games ever made, showing how video games were growing up and directly competing with the movie world.

That new ethos is best found in Joel Miller, the protagonist of the game, a grieving father who is tasked with shepherding Ellie, a kid who is immune from the virus, across the post-apocalyptic US. It’s a long, emotional, and superbly written story that puts the player in really uncomfortable places, cementing Joel as one of the most complex protagonists players have the pleasure of embodying in all of video games.

6

Sly Cooper – Sly Cooper Franchise

• First seen in Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus in 2002
• Last seen in Bentley’s Hackpack in 2013
• The underappreciated but beloved thief who never reached the heights it should have.

It’s hard not to feel sorry for Sly Cooper, even if he came to embody much of the PlayStation’s brand early days. Despite having games on the PS2, PS3, and even the Vita, it feels like Sucker Punch’s thieving raccoon never reached the potential heights it could have if new entries were being released today, but what games do exist have cemented themselves as stone-cold classics of the era, and have aged really well.

Players taking on the role of Sly must sneak their way through stealth and action-based platforming levels alongside Bentley and Murray, the backup crew, in missions that are love letters to heist tropes and cliches. Despite the cartoony presentation, there’s a real edge to the characters, that always made the games feel like they stood apart from the other mascot platformers.

5

Ratchet and Clank – Ratchet and Clank Franchise

Across Time and Space

• First appeared in Ratchet & Clank in 2002.
• Last appeared in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart in 2021.
• One of the old guard still standing.

PlayStation in its early days was always pitched as having edgier characters to appeal to those who thought Nintendo may be a bit too kid-orientated. Perhaps no other character embodies this better than Ratchet and Clank, who in their original game, hate each other’s guts for a surprising amount of time. Though they’re best buds now, the crude humor, big bombastic guns, and actual tension between characters made the franchise stand apart from its peers, particularly with its roster of characters with great backstories.

These days, the franchise remains in impressive shape. In 2021, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart was one of the first games to highlight the processing power of the PS5 by eliminating loading screens, and it did a great job of retaining the charm invented almost 20 years previous. Though many of PlayStation’s older characters are dormant, Ratchet and Clank remain healthy and active to this day.

4

Sackboy – LittleBigPlanet

A World Of Your Creation

• First appeared in LittleBigPlanet in 2008.
• Last appeared in Ultimate Sackboy in 2023.
• The definition of a goofy blank slate.

By the late 2000s, platformers were becoming increasingly unpopular as shooters and gritty story games were taking the spotlight. Despite that context, the original LittleBigPlanet arrived without a care in the world, introduced its players to a world of joy, as well as the indomitable hero of the games, Sackboy, an adorable brown-hewn little fella with a big wagging tongue like a dog.

Despite the LittleBigPlanet games being well known for being level designers first, and stories second, Sackboy remains a constant through them all, making his way through joyous worlds without a care in the world, usually with a smile. He’s the epitome of simplicity in character design, but his association with creativity and carefree exploration makes him one of PlayStation’s most iconic characters.

3

Nathan Drake – Uncharted

New Generation Treasure Hunter

• First appeared in Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune in 2007.
• Last appeared in Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection in 2022.
• The lovable rogue of the Sony world.

Naughty Dog had an unenviable task with the Uncharted franchise. They wanted to make a treasure-hunting action game, but they had to compete with Tomb Raider, one of the most iconic treasure hunters in video games, as well as the indomitable influence of Indiana Jones. How do you create a new character in that space? The answer: Just lean into it all the way.

So arrives Nathan Drake, a loveable rogue who embodies all of these previous characters, unabashedly taking inspiration from anywhere it could be found, and cohering it into a strong franchise that captures the adventurous spirit of dime novel treasure hunts while retaining the heart of brilliantly written characters. Drake may be a bit of rogue, but he was a prefigure of the high-quality writing that would come to define the PlayStation brand in the years to come.

2

Crash Bandicoot – Crash Bandicoot Franchise

Idiot Savant

• First appeared in Crash Bandicoot in 1996.
• Last appeared in Crash Team Rumble in 2023.
• The whacky and weird mascot.

When Sony was trying to stake out a brand of all their own, they knew that they needed to compete directly with competitor mascots like Mario and Sonic. So, what did they do? They, in collaboration with Naughty Dog, came up with one of the weirdest, wildest, and sometimes plain off-putting characters in Crash Bandicoot, an idiot savant who scrapes by whacky adventures by the skin of his teeth and with little understanding of what’s going on at all.

Despite Crash’s insane presentation, he became the embodiment of the PlayStation brand that was actively trying to march to the beat of its drum, creating a character that embodied the grunge and anti-society cultural movement of the late 90s. Crash Bandicoot has remained Sony’s longest-standing mascot, and despite ups and downs in quality and brutal difficulty, remains one of the most iconic creations ever to come from the PlayStation.

1

Kratos – God of War Franchise

The Slayer of Gods

• First appeared in God of War in 2005.
• Last appeared in God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla in 2023.
• A character that ages with the brand.

Characters like Crash Bandicoot and Sly Cooper stay in their state of arrested development forever, and that’s their charm, but Kratos, the protagonist of the God of War franchise, is a character that has continually evolved since his inception. He begins as the embodiment of rage after the slaughter of his family, but through the years, and particularly after the 2018 reboot, Kratos has come to stand as a metaphor for the gaming audience that grew up with him as he tackles a rogue’s gallery of tricky bosses.

In God of War 2018, Kratos has tried to settle down, and has a son, but is dragged back into the business of god killing against his will. The excellent writing, the metatextual analysis of a character that was once defined by violence, and the genuine growth of that character into a complex man defined by trauma, are some of the best long-term storytelling ever done in video games and represent not just the edgy early days of the Playstation brand, but its maturation into a space where great stories can be told.